NEW HANOVER — The chaplain of the Plymouth Township Police Department appealed to a weary crowd of hundreds gathered as darkness fell Friday.

“It’s time to be still from a busy day,” the Rev. Dr. Nicholas Salios said.

Neighbors, family, friends and fellow police officers from across the tri-county region and as far as Philadelphia stood together, silently, on sidewalks of Lilac Lane, around the house that Officer Bradley Fox lived in with his pregnant wife, Lynsay, and their young daughter.

“Now it’s time to pause and listen to God,” Salios said.

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Offer Fox was killed in the line of duty Thursday night when he was ambushed by a hit-and-run crash suspect.

“We are grateful for Brad’s devotion to the law enforcement community,” Salios said before praying to God, “We ask for your blessing on Brad’s family.”

Plymouth Township officers lined the driveway of Fox’s home and stood at attention during the vigil, in which candles donated by St. Eleanor Catholic Church in Collegeville were passed out. As Salios finished his prayers, everyone gathered lit a candle and held it up to the sky.

Fox responded to the scene of a three car accident while on duty in Plymouth around at 5:42 p.m. Thursday when Andrew Charles Thomas got into a hit-and-run accident and shot Fox while hiding after a foot pursuit, according to a release issued Friday afternoon by Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Ferman.

Fox, who would have turned 35 on Friday, died of a single gunshot to the head.

His K-9 partner, Nick, was grazed by a bullet but received veterinary care Friday.

Authorities said Thomas, 44, of the 100 block of Grassmere Road in Lower Merion, was on probation for felony forgery charges. He reportedly drove a stolen, 2006 Infiniti SUV around stopped traffic at the accident scene on the 1200 block of East Ridge Pike, prompting Fox and other officers to pursue him.

The Infiniti struck a Chrysler 300 sedan, after which Thomas reportedly ditched the vehicle on Ernest Station Road and fled, according to the district attorney’s office.

Fox “followed the path of the striking vehicle and found it abandoned,” the district attorney’s office said, at which point he radioed for backup and started a foot pursuit of the suspect with Nick.

They chased Thomas into “an industrial area alongside the Schuylkill River Trail.” At some point, according to authorities, Thomas fired four times at Fox and Nick from a hill. He was hiding among weeds above train tracks, a preliminary investigation determined.

Responding officers discovered Fox and called for emergency medical backup.

After an hour of searching for Fox’s shooter with various agencies and canine search teams involved, Thomas was located, dead.

An autopsy by Dr. Erica Williams determined Fox died of the single wound to the head and the manner of death was homicide.

An autopsy by Dr. Williams determined that Thomas’ manner of death was suicide. Dr. Williams said Thomas died of one “direct contact wound” and another “close contact wound” to the chest.

Thomas was reportedly on probation from forgery charges he pleaded guilty to in May. The charges stemmed from a 2005 incident in which he used $140 worth of counterfeit Acme gift certificates.

For seven years, police were seeking Thomas, who failed to appear at his formal arraignment back in 2005.

He was arrested May 21, 2012, and pleaded guilty the next day.

Plymouth Township Manager Karen Weiss said Fox is the first of the municipality’s officers to be killed in the line of duty.

Gov. Tom Corbett ordered all Pennsylvania flags in the Capitol Complex in Harrisburg and at commonwealth facilities in Montgomery County to fly at half-staff to honor Officer Fox. State flags will remain at half-staff until sundown on the day of Fox’s funeral.

The American flag at New Hanover’s municipal building and police station was already at half-staff at dusk Friday.

Fox’s family was on the mind of everyone gathered for the prayer vigil.

“We are a one family,” Plymouth Township Police Chief Joseph Lawrence said. “This doesn’t end Wednesday or Thursday. This continues for life. Brad’s always a part of us, so is his family.”

Fox’s birthday was supposed to be on Friday.

In broken voices, his family and some officers did their best to sing “Happy Birthday.”

After the gathered Plymouth officers were dismissed, they solemnly shook hands or hugged, some wiping their eyes.

Throughout the ceremony, there was a remarkable silence, even as the young families from the development Fox lived in processed to his home. The only breaks in silence came from quiet sobs or the rare, soft babbling of small children.

Bob Logan, of the Blue Knights, a motorcycle club for active and retired law enforcement, said he came for a “brother officer.”

“A few of us came out,” the former Douglass (Mont.) Police officer said. “We’re here to show support.”

Fox served his community and country in several ways. In addition to being a police officer, he was a U.S. Marine veteran of two tours of duty in Iraq.

Lisa and Rick Kristoff knew both Fox and his wife. They said Lynsay taught their son in school.

“Brad used to make regular visits to the classroom,” Lisa said.

She said their son developed a friendship with Fox “over the (Philadelphia) Flyers.”

“It’s been about six years,” Lisa said before tearing up.

Rick said his wife talks with Lynsay Fox almost daily via text.

“It’s a big loss,” Lisa said.

Oksoon Pyn stood at the rally on a curb with an American flag and a lit candle crossed in her arms. Her daughter, who lived in the same development, struck up a friendship with Fox’s daughter through play-dates, she said.

“It’s so sad,” she said.

As the vigil began to break up and Plymouth officers and friends hugged Fox’s family, a helicopter focused its searchlight on the crowd and performed a fly-over, just hundreds of feet from the ground.

“It’s not fair,” a man could be heard crying before the fly-over.

As he spoke, Salios summed up at least part of what Fox’s death meant to everyone gathered.

“In a true sense, it is a mutual loss to the family and to the (Plymouth Police) Department and to the community for whom he laid down his life to protect,” he said.

About the Author

Frank Otto is a general assignment reporter covering Phoenixville, Limerick and Spring-Ford schools in addition to features and spot news. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Otto moonlights with the sports department on occasion. Reach the author at fotto@pottsmerc.com
or follow Frank on Twitter: @fottojourno.